Chadwick School

Chadwick School
Address
26800 South Academy Drive Palos Verdes Peninsula, CA 90274 USA
Coordinates
Information
Type	Independent
Religious affiliation(s)	Nonsectarian
Established	1935
Headmaster	Ted Hill
Faculty	106
Grades	K-12
Enrollment	830 (2013-2014 Village School(K-6): 320 Middle School(7-8): 150 Upper School(9-12): 360 )
Campus	Suburban 45 acres
Athletics	24 CIF Varsity teams
Athletics conference	CIF Southern Section Prep League
Mascot	Pacific bottlenose dolphin
Endowment	$20,706,482.00
Website	School website

Chadwick School is a nonsectarian independent K-12 day school located on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County, California, USA. Specifically it is located at the top of the neighborhood referred to as "Academy Hill", which is bounded by a canyon, a precipice, Crenshaw Boulevard, and Palos Verdes Drive North.

History

The school was founded in 1935 by Margaret Lee Chadwick and Commander Joseph Chadwick in San Pedro, California. In 1938 the school moved to Palos Verdes, California. In the beginning Chadwick was an open air day and boarding school for 75 students.

Chadwick's 380 seat main theater

After the retirement of the Chadwick family in 1963, the school created a board of trustees and in 1968 discontinued its boarding program. In 1972, Chadwick joined the Cum Laude Society. Up until the 1980s the school owned all of the hill leading up to it which was sold off to establish the school's endowment. Since then the school has opened more buildings, a gymnasium, and a performing arts center. It is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. The movie adaptation of the book Mommie Dearest was filmed at Chadwick in 1981.

Student and faculty profile

Chadwick is divided into three schools: the Village School (K-grade 6), the Middle School (grades 7-8), and the Upper School (grades 9-12). 63 percent of the faculty members held advanced degrees in the 2014-2015 school year.

Chadwick International

Chadwick International's four-story atrium

Main article: Chadwick International

On January 13, 2010, the school announced that it would be administrating and integrating a sister school in South Korea. Chadwick was the third school chosen to administrate the new school after a deal with Vancouver International Primary and Secondary School fell through. Prior to that, the International School Service had submitted plans to run the school but withdrew them. Later in the process the school's opening was delayed by Chadwick administrators when they failed to submit paperwork on time.

The school is located in the Songdo International City, a city renowned for its efforts to 'go green' and is administratively a near replica of Chadwick School in Palos Verdes. Headmaster Ted Hill has stated that the sister school will remain in contact with the originating school through the use of Telepresence equipment supplied by Cisco.

The school opened on September 6, 2010, and completed its first year in June 2011. As of the 2013-14 school year, Chadwick International enrolled 780 students in grades pre-K through 10. Eleventh grade was added in September 2014, and the school will graduate its first class in 2015-16. There are now frequent exchanges and visits between the two Chadwick campuses.

Study abroad

In addition to sending students to Chadwick International, Chadwick frequently exchanges students with other schools that participate in the Round Square program. Chadwick students also travel to other schools through additional programs such as ones through the Community Service program.

Sperm whale skull fossil

On February 5, 2014, a fossil of a sperm whale skull embedded in a piece of Middle Miocene Era Altamira Shale was removed to be studied at the LA County Natural History Museum. An expert from the museum believes that the skull may be of a previously unknown species. This event was widely covered by Los Angeles area news outlets.

Extracurricular activities

Athletics

Commander field in preparation for a game

Chadwick's main rivals are Polytechnic School in Pasadena, California and Flintridge Preparatory School in La Cañada, California.

Chadwick participates in 23 Varsity CIF sports. They include boys' football, tennis, volleyball, waterpolo, basketball, soccer, baseball, golf, and girls' tennis, volleyball, waterpolo, equestrian, basketball, soccer, golf, lacrosse, softball and cheerleading. They also include coed cross country, swimming, and track and field.

In 2007 Chadwick reevaluated its image and decided that yellow was not an appropriate school color. It also realized that its athletics logo featured a non-native dolphin. After these realizations the school designed a new blue, grey, and white logo featuring a native and more aggressive looking dolphin.

School newspaper

The school newspaper, The Mainsheet, is published in print and online. Online publication was restarted at the beginning of March 2012.

Intracurricular activities

Robotics

In 2006 members of the high school community started Wicked Wobotics, team 2150, a FIRST robotics team. The team won the Judges' choice award at the 2008 FIRST Robotics competition in Las Vegas, Nevada and was ranked sixth after the qualifying rounds. The FRC team was discontinued in 2010. The remaining team focused on the simpler and less expensive Vex Robotics Competition.

In 2011 the school added an optional robotics class to its science curriculum and moved into a larger room previously occupied by the maintenance department.

In 2014 the team had 40 members, and had to move to a much larger classroom.

Chadwick Robotics also collaborates with the robotics program at the Chadwick International campus in Songdo, South Korea, sharing engineering techniques and innovative strategies for each year's contest.

Controversial actions

Teachers

After 5-8% annual raises from 2004–2008, Chadwick did not give teachers raises for the 2009-2010 year and issued smaller raises of 2.5% for the 2010-2011 school year. At the same time Chadwick also changed a policy of replacing teachers' computers every three years to replacing them every five years. If a teacher needs a more powerful computer earlier due to teaching a class with more complex requirements,the computer is upgraded.

Notable alumni

Alumna Aida Mollenkamp demonstrates cooking techniques at the Chadwick Carnival

Business

• Danese Cooper - programmer, wikipedia
• Jann Wenner - owner of Rolling Stone magazine

Entertainment

• Erik Bergquist - screenwriter, The Fast and the Furious
• Christina Crawford - actor and author of Mommie Dearest
• Peter Davis - winner of an Academy Award for documentary
• Chuck Dukowski - Bass player for 1970s punk rock band Black Flag
• Jessica Gottlieb - author
• Brandon Lee - actor and martial artist, son of Bruce Lee
• Shannon Lee - daughter of Bruce Lee, sister of Brandon Lee
• Mike Lookinland - actor, The Brady Bunch
• Liza Minnelli - winner of the Emmy, Grammy, Academy and Tony Awards
• Aida Mollenkamp - television chef and food writer, Ask Aida and FoodCrafters
• Rick Moses - actor/singer/songwriter

File:Press Chadwick.jpg

Alumna Christen Press plays in a Chadwick alumni soccer game

• Eric Puchner - novelist & short story writer
• Maureen Reagan - actor, child of Ronald Reagan
• George Starbuck - poet, winner of the 1983 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize
• Robert Towne - screenwriter/director, winner of an Academy Award for the screenplay of Chinatown
• Michael Viner - record and audiobook producer
• Peter Zuckerman - journalist, The Oregonian

Athletics

• Lindsay Davenport - № 1 ranked female tennis player
• Christen Press - World Champion soccer player, recipient of the 2010 Hermann Trophy.
• Rebecca Smith - Olympic soccer player
• John Thorrington - soccer player

A photograph by Adams of students visiting the beach

Notable employees

• Ansel Adams - Photographed school and school events; Set up dark room
• Latario Rachal - Athletics coach
• Cedric Wright - Photography teacher

In literature

Nonfiction

• Hedy Lamarr: The Most Beautiful Woman in Film by Ruth Barton
• Indigenous: growing up Californian by Cris Mazza
• Mommie Dearest by Christina Crawford
• The Milk of Almonds: Italian American Women Writers on Food and Culture by Edvige Giunta

Fictional Chadwick School novels

• Mandie by Lois Gladys Leppard
• Surviving Chadwick: A Novel by Phillip Wilhite
• THE TRUST: A Secret Society Novel by Tom Dolby
• White Lines by Jennifer Banash. Several fictional teachers in the novel share their names with Chadwick faculty. For example, the character Mr. Cass in the novel shares his last name with a Chadwick teacher. Dr. Banash herself taught English at Chadwick.

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Notes
1981	Mommie Dearest	Shot in main parking lot